CARTILAGE RESTORATION

Cartilage restoration is a procedure to stimulate the growth of new cartilage. Several non-surgical and surgical techniques such as dietary supplements, microfracture, drilling, abrasion arthroplasty, osteochondral autograft, and allograft transplantation may be utilized for cartilage restoration.

Cartilage Restoration Procedures

Cartilage replacement is a surgical procedure performed to replace the worn-out cartilage with new cartilage. It is usually performed to treat patients with small areas of cartilage damage usually caused by sports or traumatic injuries. It is not indicated for those patients who have advanced arthritis of the knee. Articular or hyaline cartilage is the tissue that covers bone surface of the knee which helps in smooth interaction between the two bones in the knee joint. It has less capacity to repair by itself because there is no direct blood supply to cartilage.

Cartilage replacement helps relieve pain, restore normal function, and can delay or prevent the onset of arthritis. The goal of cartilage replacement procedures is to stimulate growth of new hyaline cartilage. Various arthroscopic procedures involved in cartilage replacement include:

Osteochondral Allograft Transfers (OATs)

OATS is “osteochondral autograft transfer system”. It is one of the two types of cartilage transfer procedures and the other procedure is “Mosaicplasty”. Cartilage transfer procedures involve moving healthy cartilage from a non-weight-bearing area of the knee to a damaged area of the cartilage in the knee. In mosaicplasty, plugs of cartilage and bone are taken from a healthy cartilage area and moved to replace the damaged cartilage of the knee. Multiple tiny plugs are used and once embedded, resemble a mosaic pattern, hence the name. With the OATS procedure, the plugs are larger. Therefore, the surgeon only needs to move one or two plugs of healthy cartilage and bone to the damaged area of the knee.

Matrix-induced Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (MACI)

Matrix-Induced autologous chondrocyte implantation is an innovative, FDA-approved cartilage restoration procedure that uses your own cells to repair cartilage defects in your knee. It can alleviate knee pain, help you regain function and may even delay or prevent arthritis.